A taxi driver was jailed for 10 years today for his part in the killing of two men who were battered to death because one of them was having an affair with a married woman.

A jury found Sabir Hussain, 40, guilty yesterday of the manslaughter of Afghan electrician Ahmedin Sayed Khyel, 35, and his friend, labourer Imran Khan, also from Afghanistan, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, last May.

He was cleared of the men's murder.

The victims were killed by at least three men, including the ringleader, taxi driver Muhammed Zubair, who fled to Pakistan and has not been captured, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Mr Khyel had been having an affair with Zubair's wife Kainaat Bibi.

The court heard how the two victims were found dead, with terrible head injuries, in a lane near the village of Tong, between Bradford and Leeds.

But the killings took place at Zubair's home in Heath Terrace, Barkerend, Bradford.

Father-of-three Hussain, of Wensleydale Road, Bradford, told police that his friend Zubair attacked the two men with a hammer and, at one point, got the weapon stuck in Mr Khan's skull.

"The ferocity of the violence inflicted on the victims was such that the blood stains projected around the wall and on the ceilings of the room," the jury was told.

Using a walking stick, she was led from the dock after the judge, Mr Justice King, heard how she bought the plane ticket which allowed her son to escape justice by flying to Pakistan after the attack.

The judge said her case was an extremely serious case of perverting the course of justice as it meant a man responsible for a double murder may well never face justice.

He said: "The sole reason the police have never arrested Mohammed Zubair and the sole reason why he's never been brought to justice is that he was able to escape to Pakistan."

He added: "In full knowledge of what your son had done, you provided the means by which he was able to flee the jurisdiction and escape apprehension and prosecution for the two murders."

The judge said: "Family loyalty and maternal love cannot justify what you did."

The court heard Sultana has a variety of health problems and uses a stairlift at her home.

Bibi, 27, of Heath Terrace, was jailed for 20 months.

She told detectives a series of lies, including that her husband was on a pilgrimage to Morocco.

Speaking after the sentencing hearing, Detective Superintendent Dick Nuttall, of West Yorkshire police, said: "This was a brutal killing of two men who were lured to a house and subject to a sustained assault receiving fatal head injuries.

"Their bodies were then callously dumped in a country lane.

"Today's sentences reflect the part played by those individuals involved in the deaths or assisting an outstanding suspect to flee the country."

The detective said he hoped the sentences would bring some comfort to the victims' families.

He added: "However, our work continues to locate an oustanding suspect."